No Incredible Uplift -
by eisceire
Summary: Each hero has one pure hell in their life: where it goes so badly wrong as to haunt and change the hero forever. This is such a deadly time in the young life of Violet. Not even her parents are there for her, finding an arriviste hero more important. The heroes are dying - one way or another. OC
1. Family Field

**o0O¥O0o — NO INCREDIBLE UPLIFT — o0O¥O0o**

 _ **« » — A.N — « »**_

 _ **Violet is taken to her limits and beyond yet not caring slightly, as she has purely given up on herself. Her own parents are blind to her fate. This gets explicit and brutal around the middle. How can it not? It is meant to be the worst day in the life of a heroine. The one that damages her forever! The feck! There will be squik!**_

 _ **Syndrome is a pure hater to monologues. Well feck me but this is the opposite of him. Here is a villain that will not hush; not even if you cut the bloody tongue out of him.**_

 _ **You can read this all by itself as a strong and independent fic. Honestly: it is an old story slightly reframed. It was "Metroville Chase: Zep" and part of a longer chain of linked fics. Most of those fics are now inside a single tale. This one won't ram into the new format. That makes it a gobshyte sidebar to the main tale of "No Incredible Family".**_

 **o0O¥O0o**

« § » — CHAPTER ONE »» FAMILY FIELD — « § »

Mr Incredible ducks and weaves through the heavy border mob; frantic to link with his family. All by his own clumsiness he has dropped a trap down on top of them. He shouldn't ever have taken this mission: not their style; not their territory and barely even their language. He'd had to do something though; after he'd seen how his kids were scrapping and understood how many rows he and Helen were having. Helen was refusing the marital bed and Violet was offering to fill it. He had seen that they'd been a team far too often and a family far too little. He had to make some action to recall them to being an ordinary family.

That was why Mr Incredible had seized on this one opportunity that had opened up and looked to bring peace: an invitation for him to launch the latest airship venture: tours across the borders, over the Great Lakes. It was an all expenses paid, luxury hotel deal and he was to be supported in promoting the enterprise; as both of the North Am Governments wanted the venture to flourish. They were so very keen on it they had even been prevailed on to allow his family and friends along with him too. The volcanic Baby Jack-Jack had been left in the, now capable, hands of Kari McKeen. All of the rest of them, though, were here with him at this moment; this moment when things went so very badly belly-up.

How he wishes that he had left Violet at home as the babysitter; rather then bring her here. Being a Super she raged against the humanity she had lost. the sterility her powers inflicted on her. Being a teen she had not been at all keen on taking a tour of the Canadian rural scene. However, he had determined that she would be a part of the family, whatever about her wants, and dragged her along to here. He had forced the issue to this instant: where, now, Violet faces the annihilation and devastation of her very self, by the mere presence of the heroine dropping out of the clouds. Rainbow is just one more of the new Supers, flourishing like poppies after the loss of the old generation. It is far from the first time that Rainbow, has been active around the Incredibles. Yet so, till this crux,,

Mr Incredible had thought he married Elastigirl but ( thanks to the Supers Act) he had married Helen Parr and has been living with her, living without the heroine. He has been so frustrated and unsated without the Elastigirl and the existence of his expectations that he never hesitates in taking Rainbow to be his new Elastigirl. He does it with hardly a pause and hardly a thought for the outcome to the family; of adding this new element to it. The seeds of destruction are easy planting: Frozone is on the outs with the Parrs, Rainbow is a natural infill, she adds skills to the team and is uncannily at ease from the start. Whatever about his lustful deceit, in every proper way Rainbow is the piece to complete the Incredible jigsaw. Helen and Dash were glad to accept her from the very start and it was actually Dash's suggestion that sees Rainbow invited here today.

Violet has never been so close or in touch with Rainbow as the others are, which is the why she has not been told of any invitation or expectation of a Rainbow. For a snatch of time all the Incredibles are content: at the same fete, enjoying their different fates. Helen takes Dash aside to the games, Violet forges ahead to the gypsy booths, while Mr Incredible dawdles, happy at knowing his Rainbow crush is coming to join them today. She is the almost perfect match for Young Elastigirl and the perfect match for Mr Incredible. She has not been his lover, not so far, not since they fell for each other, but only by chance not choice. They mean to change that, here at the fete. with no crisis to impede them. Yet so, Rainbow's mere arrival makes a crisis out of Violet: who is just about to have her fortune told when she sees her fate fall out of the heavens.

The entire horrowshow is writ plain on Violet's face, her distress echoes his dismay, as Mr Incredible grasps what Rainbow's arrival, what Rainbow's presence means to Violet. Worse than the fact that Violet has never quite felt part of the family or of the team; now his daughter is seeing what she takes to be her replacement fall upon her, even here. It is all too plain that this is how Violet judges the matter, judges herself, judges how little her family must want her or care for her. The entire family are aware of the disaster unfolding in front of them now; in front of them and within eyesight of them all — yet Violet is as distant as if she is an ocean away.

Violet must be feeling utterly abandoned and betrayed to do what she does next yet why should she not. Too many months ago, a trip abroad, a test of Dash's speed had become a fight to survive against a villain ambush. It had taken Violet all that she had to find a way out of the trap; her reward had been to overhear parents and savants whispering how her very own powers stole away any power to ever have children or a family of her own. Yes, she had heard it in whispers, but never, to this day, heard it aloud from her parents to her who had most right to hear. Nor do they even trust her with the guest list for this outing! Once before her rage flared and her power flared all the way off the scale and nearly took her family off the planet. This time it is Violet, in her own self, that is the bullseye, against which her explosion of power lashes. Facing the vision of her alter ego coming down to land: Violet does something, she becomes nothing, she blinks herself and the Soothsayer's tent entirely away and out of visible existence. There has been not a word nor a cry nor a groan out of Violet: it is a silent film show, with Violet in the Lillian Gish role.

The fortune-teller sits at her table and her occult ball; staring into open air that has no right to be there. For all of her insight she finds herself trapped inside; whether they're in sight or not the walls of the tent are still there and where the doorflap is it's hard to say and so it stays all that day and forever. In her shock and in her temper Violet has supercharged her powers and left disaster behind her. Who can say the direction in which she fled and worse yet than that: who can say if she has not made herself invisible for always?

Rainbow and the Incredibles exhaust all of their powers in their efforts to find the wayward girl all to no avail. They simply exhaust themselves and must to return to the hotel failing, despairing and grieving. The oddity of it all is how the evil of the day is bonding all of them closer together than anything else might. When the family finally discover Violet (stewing in her hotel room) the umbrage they feel and the outrage they release are the feelings that they all share and the web that links them ever more closely, one to another. Violet (by the very mechanics of events) is nothing but the focus of the storm and more isolated than even before.


	2. Bob Blindsided

« § » — CHAPTER TWO »» BOB BLINDSIDED — « § »

The second day of the week-long Fair is when the zeppelin is meant to set down. Even if it is only available for outside viewing, until all checks are complete, it will still be something of a sight. It is not any sight that Violet will see; as she obstinately refuses to set foot outside of her room and accuses Rainbow of all manner of ill. It is Violet who most firmly plants the notion of the face behind the mask of Rainbow; her who sets out the maze for others to run through.

« … skinny, young, lady with long, white hair! Gosh, guys; guess who that sounds like? What'd they call that witch on Nomanisan? Oh; yeh — Mirage! Go on out and have a fun time getting killed; I'll pass. »

For once Bob has the sense to keep zipped and let his wife talk.

« Now, darling you have to be reasonable. Even back before we got married we never knew all the identities. Sweetling, we can't expect people to respect our masks if we don't respect theirs. »

« You listen to your mom, Violet. Masks aren't so great beans anyhow; they don't do anything to hide how you behave. Have you got that; young lady? »

« Sweetling, I know you're having a tough time getting older. But, we're both smart girls and we all miss Frozone; so … when … someone … turns up … and … is willing to work with us … and … acts … like a hero we … just … have … to … swallow … it … okay? »

« Gee; mom, pop, all that vanishing yesterday has got me real tired. I think I'll stop in and rest. »

Which is a far as they can move the muleheaded Violet; not at all. Whatever about that, it is three Incredibles and one Rainbow who spend a uniquely enjoyable morning around the festival. One of the very first unsights is the soothsayer; who has now become a boothscrier and is charging people to not-see her tent, which is showing no signs of showing.

Dashiell is free to dash about as much as he may; with one of Rainbow's distinctive thunderclouds keeping tabs on him. Rainbow herself wins a triumphant success with the youngsters at the Fair: by staging puppet shows of miniature heroes and villains, of Incredibles, allies and enemies — all of it nothing but a mirage of light. When she is not demonstrating how skilfully she can recreate actual people, Rainbow is taking the more daring of the kids up into the sky for aerial rides.

Somehow Helen andBob find themselves free to wander through the fete alone, in just their own company and without any tagalongs or troubles to distract them from each other. It is a rare and valuable space of time for any parents, but even more so for parents who are also heroes. It ends when Helen spots Dash, making a rout of a steering game (by overspeeding,) and heads over to sort him out. Bob Incredible is about to follow his wife but is held back by Rainbow holding his elbow. Rainbow nods once in the direction of his spouse and son, then once in the direction of the airship; giving him a clear choice.

« Family … Us ? »

Bob Incredible, in the back of his head, knows he absolutely shouldn't slip up and slip away like this but he set his feet on this slippery slope a long time ago; passion and desire speak louder than prudence and duty. He leads Rainbow into the airship, which can hardly be barred to heroes like them, and soon finds a salon with a spacious couch. To Rainbow's satisfaction, it also has blinds, that she can draw down over all of the windows, to indulge her fetish for darkness. Beyond that foible, Rainbow puts no pressure on Bob Incredible; letting him take the lead or even quibble and retreat.

Bob Incredible has no intention of going back; he is going for her back, by easing the wings, tunic and bandeau of her costume off of her body. She readily peels her boots off and entirely bares her legs. He hugs and clinches her tight as their lips and tongues meet in an urgent kiss. His hands are, at last, exploring her body: the smooth toned muscle of her back, the sculpted tautness of her belly and the soft curve of her breasts. In his hunger he forgets his strength to grip her nipples and breasts painfully hard but it only urges her to nestle into his body the harder. She has the secret of his supersuit and eases it off of his shoulders to glide it down to his waist.

By this time his hands are at the buckle of her belt and — SNAP — a whip has slashed and lashed around his neck. An enemy is in the doorway: tugging him off balance, dragging him backwards and strangling him steadily. For all that; it is no whip that has got the worst of him: this is some kind of a toadman and it is his prehensile tongue that is choking Mr Incredible. Some sort of a poison there must be too, laid along his tongue, as Mr Incredible has gone limp, boneless and helpless almost as soon as it lands around his neck. He cannot do one thing for himself; he has no ability at all to fight against this obnoxious appendage that is inexorably strangling him to his final demise.

Luckily for Mr Incredible he isn't alone, and his heroine lands on the villain's back; leaping out the last tangle of her garb, to hack at the grisly tongue with her knife. Her mask still on her head makes it seems like a fight between a dragon and an amphibian. Mr Toad doesn't take kindly to this unkind cut and responds with the warts that cover his body; the warts at the back of his wrist that yield a burning and viscous acid. The dire liquid falls in a line along Rainbow's arm from elbow to wrist and eats deep into her flesh like searing, scalding, steaming lightning. Fortunately, that seems to be all that he has in him: like many a venomous beast he has one shot and one shot only; it is hardly enough to slow her … let alone stop her. Soon enough what was once his tongue is nothing but a writhing, severed limb lying on the floor.


	3. Mr Incredible Icarus

« § » — CHAPTER THREE »» MR INCREDIBLE ICARUS — « § »

Mr Toad is in little better shape than his carven tongue, after this brutal dismemberment. This is all the better for Rainbow as she has to struggle with the heavy, inert and unmoving poundage of Mr Incredible. Luckily the toadman is overly hurt to press the attack and retreats with the hunk of what was once his Incredible can think, feel and breath but seems to have no control or ability of his limbs at all. At least they have been blessed by the bureaucrats of the world: who insisted on a surfeit of emergency exits, including the one on the outer wall of this very salon. On the outer wall and out of service, with nothing outside but the wide open blue of the sky. The two of them had been so engaged in each other; they had not observed the airship disengage from the ground and ascend.

Inside of his head Mr Incredible is hating his powerlessness and then hating it even more; as his heroine sends him shooting out of the door and into the void, without so much as a handkerchief for parachute. He has barely got the measure of her powers or of herself though: she casts a dark and pearlescent cloud around him and lends him her power of flight. It is at least enough for her to slow and guide his plummeting fall, as if he were one radio controlled plane. He can catch glimpses of her in the doorway of the airship and see the concentration etched across the mouth he so recently kissed. He wishes she would jump too, and cast herself free of whatever dangers are skulking aboard. Yet so, he must guess that she isn't able to fly the two of them at the same time and has chosen to save him over herself.

Abruptly, his fluid descent shudders and lurches drunkenly; he goes into a spin that wins him more glances upwards. Mr Incredible catches sight of Rainbow reeling in the doorway and grabbing on; to keep from going overboard. Her body shakes and judders as if in an electric chair; whatever forces lurk up there, they have found and struck at the lass. Mr Incredible fears it might be too late; but still watches and waits for her to plunge out and away from danger; yet she never does so. That is when understanding sinks, like a stone, inside of him … she'll rather sacrifice herself than surrender him. The message is plain to read: in the tight line of her lips, the white grip of her hands and the buck and jolt of her body.

Whatever about that, he is speeding his way earthwards as calmly as a glider again; Rainbow has got over her shock, got back her control and is giving him her best — whatever the cost to her. By now Mr Incredible is certain and sure that, whoever is aboard, they will have to cut off her head before she lets him fall. Which is a thought he wishes he hadn't had and, if his body still had power of speech, he'd soon have turned the sky bluer with his swearing!

He's well away from the zeppelin by now and can see the ground getting closer, faster and faster. Yes: much faster than he would like; especially so because Rainbow seems to be aiming him so as to hit the Fairground obstacle. He soon finds this is so; as he is folded, closed and englobed in a red and black blur, which is his elasticated wife shielding him from harm. He feels her rolling along; while her head pops up, besides his, inside the ball … so she can see her husband and speak to him.

« Hush! Keep quiet and keep still. We want all the rubberneckers to think this is part of a show. No need for anyone to know you got yourself into something that nearly got you killed. Yes! I heard. Lucky we gave Rainbow a commike. I'll get you inside a tent and then we can … WHERE'S YOUR TOP!? … Never mind; you can tell me when you can talk but it had better be good. »

In fact Mr Incredible is coming back to himself already; whatever about that venom it had a short acting cycle. He isn't so sure he wants to revive and face Helen's question though. It isn't, as it happens, anything that concerns him at all; once his mind has got over startling at his wife's involvement it snaps right back to Rainbow's predicament. That is the first thing to stumble off his tongue, once he can talk again.

« Rainbow? Did she get out? »

« We'll worry about that later; when you're fit to plan »

Elastigirl shocks Mr Invisible: by her curt, offhand response; while she focuses on his wounds: the swelling, rash and redness of his neck, arising from poison and strangulation; then the still slightly disjointed quality of his actions. The truth of it is that Helen has her partner here and he is in difficulties. Rainbow might be caught and in trouble but nothing can beat out a wifely concern for her husband. Nothing can, except, perhaps the care of a lover for his partner. Yet so, this depth of care (for one who isn't a Parr or part of the old crews) is more than Bob dare show. He is going to have to act out professional distance, even as his sweetheart is become a damsel in distress. He hears his wife out; as she plans.

« Well, we're lucky the N.S.A doesn't trust us yet. I had that handler, the one they sent along with us, to make a priority call for a doc who can deal with this sort of problem. When she's done that, her job is to keep the kids out from under our feet; while we sort this one out. »

« What! Why're we keeping them out of this one? How … »

Mr Incredible is loudly upset and not understanding; but he is undercut by their commikes cutting in and he falls suddenly silent, with a curse.

« Felicitations! … … I can hear that you can hear me. I greet you; as the one, the only, the unique and incomparable Mr Inedible. Pardonnez Moi; that I blew my lines on the historic moment of our first pas de deux … but the chit got my tongue. »

« You toad; give her back to me right now. I don't care what kind of an army you've got up there; you won't keep her. »

Mr Incredible leaps to the door of the tent, to do who knows what, but his wife holds the peeled hero back; as the monologue continues.

« SILENCIO! My players, most extráordinary, will exit the wings and strut their brief moment on the stage ere long. For the nonce, know this: I will be the Harlequin to your Pierrot; Columbine is and will remain in the hands of Mr Inedible. Seek access to the shore to zeppelin monitor and we shall talk further »

« Ex-cuse me; you need to say what you mean. How does my husband already have the girl. »

An unhinged squeal of merriment explodes out of their commikes as the villain expands.

« Non, non. Your spouse is the pusillanimous Mr Incredible; I am the untouchable Mr Inedible. »

« Don't you dare mix me up with you! Now let's hear Rainbow You'd better show me she's okay. »

A pause, then a new, quiet, level and unstressed voice reaches them – it is Rainbow.

« All good … flame this zep! »

A cry of rage and disgust … silence … the crunching of a commike crushed … nothing.

The Incredibles are still and quiet for a moment; taking in what has just occurred Then they hasten to share whatever they know. Yet so, Mr Incredible has no wish to uncover what or who he was uncovering in the airship/ He spins a tale of plain curiosity about the airship, which led he and Rainbow to walk into a trap. Helen

merely tells of an ordinary day at the fete; until Rainbow had radioed her on the commike, then, between them, they had arranged the landing of Mr Incredible. That brings events up to the moment but Helen feels a puzzle grating at her.

« She's a good liar, that girl, I suppose it isn't hard if you don't say much. »

« What!? You don't believe she's in danger. »

« Oh, I do! More than she wants us to know. If you'd got over playing Mr Comet you'd see it too. » [Helen counts on her fingers] « She had that acid jet. Nearly got blown off the airship. You saw her hit from behind. She tells us it's fine but wants us to blow her out of the sky. She made that toadman mad too. I wonder what's really happening. »


	4. Above & Afore

— _**«» Elastigirl World «» —**_

 _ **«» No Incredible Family - Chapter Four «»**_

 _ **« painful memories of past damage all past healing »**_

 _ **«» all about temporary accommodation & family communication «»**_

 **o0O¥O0o**

 _Helen Parr sighs: this rabbit hutch of a house, that the government has grudgingly made over to her family while their own home is under repair, is no place for the energies of a Dash or a Mr Incredible. It does grate that she is getting next to no support from her nearest and dearest. Her best help, their best help, comes from the half-alive Violet and they all take it for granted even now; even after none of them were there for Violet when she died inside._

 _Helen wishes she could still take the family for granted but there is as much work to be done in rebuilding the family unit as there is in rebuilding the family home. Violet alone has been entirely broken apart; it has taken Helen months of patient enquiry to tease the story out of Violet crumb by crumb and even now Helen can hardly believe how much they all missed of what was right in front of their eyes. She runs the tale through her mind again and again._

… … … … …

Once they'd become global darlings it only needed Dash to comment how he wanted to know his best official speed and Cern was there to offer facilities. They jetted top class to Geneva. It was a gargantuan leap from the old drudgery to a five-star lifestyle and it rocked Helen's world.

Whatever about how it had all felt to Helen, it seemed that Violet was still half in hell and all she had in mind was the relief that her powers were improving and would improve more with a new region to practice in. Helen and indeed nobody had sensed how keenly Violet felt that she had been a deadweight on their first unofficial mission. All of the slips and mishaps around Syndrome the girl blamed on her own failures during their initial mission. Helen so much hated that her daughter felt so bad and yet (if Violet hadn't guilted out then) she never would have become the one to keep Dash alive in Europe later.

Unknown to any, Violet had become fiercely determined that her family would never be let down by her again. She had pushed her powers to the Nth degree and sought out every possible jot of training, information, education and clarification that she could obtain. In all the time between that first journey to Nomanisan and their journey to Cern Violet had privately devoted herself to being the hero and protector who could keep her family safe and make them proud of her; never mind any cost to her. It was a vow that was all too soon to be tested to the limits of Violet's capabilities.

The plainest, keenest, strongest and strangest advice had come from Edna Mode. She'd cautioned Violet not just to go barefoot, for as often as she could, but to go barebodied too. Edna had the greatest faith in the world in her costumery but it wasn't blind faith and if Violet was in a spot where she could not get hold of her costume than she had better not be a tenderfoot. Her feet had to be tough enough to stand up to anything — to stand on anything — and she had to be able to endure the elements with impunity; if she ever needed to become invisible on the spur of the moment, costume or no costume.

Nor was it the only odd habit that Edna had urged on Violet. The teenager might still be the shy, shrinking Violet who dressed to obscure as much of herself as might be hidden but these days she wore soft, loose styles; kickoff footwear and nothing in the way of hosiery or lingerie. It made for the quickest of changes from standing out like a signal-flag to being nothing at all.

Helen, Bob and even the agency had known none of this; not known a thing about how very staunch, tough and ready Violet had become. That they hadn't known about it before Geneva was just barely excusable but how did none of them observe it later — after the events in Geneva and all of their other adventures after that. It had taken all of Helen's painstaking enquiry over months cramped together in this temporary house before her daughter, oh so very gradually, let slip what had been going on with her for so long. It was a blessing that Violet had done all of that though — or else Bomb Voyage would for sure have killed away son and daughter by his savage attack back then in Geneva.

Bob and Helen were at an initial meeting at Cern and Bomb Voyage had chosen that moment (with his well known concern for all childer and citizenry) to lash out on his attempt to give a ferocious lesson to the superheroes: that they'd set out upon such a path of danger that they could never be sure of the safety of their very own darlings. He'd monologued it all out in detail; when he'd confronted the kínder by themselves, by the side of Lake Leman. It was his revenge for what he saw as the whimsical usurpation of French facilities.

He'd told the youngsters how his eggshaped Yeuxchasseur would catch sight of any movement by their cyclopean eyes and then fixate on the speediest of moving bodies before exploding on a proximity fuse into a shower of flechettes. Naturally he expected the superheroes to be the quickest: for if they refused to sprint (to keep on pacing till they were run ragged) then the Yeuxchasseur would go for the fastest moving being it found and, if it wasn't a Super, then it would certainly be a plain, civilian, bystander who was injured.

A cruel, adroit and rounded trap that gave the childer no opening to call for help or gather their wits. Dash was off in a flash: he had his costume on, being as he had expected to be running today (if not like this), but it was under a long and ordinary tee; he had been keeping his sister company and she was dressed in mufti.

Being that shade less conspicuous he did his best to keep to the congested streets; where he had the most chance of hiding among the crowd of people and gaining respite from an endless and unwinnable contest. To be sure he could outpace, outsmart, outmanoeuvre those devices but only until his energy flagged and his speed bled away. All in all he was keeping to quite a small circuit at the heart of the city and was doing well enough yet knowing he couldn't keep doing well enough for long enough but having no notion of how to arrest his motion.

The only good that Dash could claim was that he was clearly the fastest moving object in the area so he could be certain the Yeuxchasseur would be concentrated on him; which kept the locals perfectly safe. That is as safe as anyone might be in the vicinity of a downburst of razor shards; which Dash was adamant to prevent for as long as it was humanly possible. Human was the problem however; even a hero is a human and has limits and Dash was very close to his.

Violet's dilemma was of an entirely other sort; she was no Dash so — although she could certainly outspeed the dour, solid citizenry — she'd never be able to kick up enough of a pace to get herself out of danger. Her only chance was to be an invisible heroine. It took all of everything of the advice that Violet had taken from Edna to make the escape a success against those autobombs that pursued her. She had slalomed away from the hunters and down the lanes of Geneva — as garments flew from her like autumn leaves from off a tree.

One last evasion down an alleyway and then Violet was gone from view of the Seeingeye Bombs, the Yeuxchasseur; the evil that Bomb Voyage had sprung upon the Incredibles. Then she glided her skinned self between the burghers of the town. However, all of the while she took care to catch sight of whoever it might be — at any one moment — that the Yeuxchasseur were coming down upon.

These days she sure could walk and chew gum at the same time so she was entirely able to stay unclad and unseen and do more besides. Even as she kept herself vanished she knew she could still and at the same time cast up an energy barrier; to deflect off any of the flechettes. from every innocent victim. To be sure a flock of the Yeuxchasseur had gone off after Dash but not all of them by any means and so whoever it was that was around and a shade faster than the other citizens they were in need of Violet's assistance. It was a strategy that worked time and again until she began to weary and to lose both her timing and her targeting.

From then on more and more of the flechettes found their way through; even if they were doing but minor damage to the ordinary populace — because the varied paces of the strollers kept the attacks at wellspaced distances from one another. It wasn't going at all so well for Violet: so as to be certain that she kept an ironclad shield up on every innocent victim she found herself too close to a shredding rain of flechettes too many times. Violet only ever suffered from incidental fallout, not from a total complement of weaponry, but accumulate enough near misses and you'll be in as much trouble as if you've suffered a direct hit. All of her vulnerable body was tigerstriped scarlet even if it couldn't be seen by any eye.

In just the same way as Dash, she was facing the limits of her human frailty. She knew she couldn't keep every individual protected from assault indefinitely; if only there was a way to bag up all the Yeuxchasseur in one net. Then the plan came to her and she chased down the other knot of hunters to reach her brother, her fellow target. Rapidly the unseen Violet murmured her plan to Dash; it was nothing more than the old bait and snatch.

Dash was bait; he shucked off his tee, whipped out the mask and was suddenly a fully costumed, bright beacon of a superhero. He made a straight line run to the Square of the Broken Chair. There, amongst the fountains, people tended to dally and laze; that meant that the Dash display of an ever accelerating speed was certain to draw down all of the Yeuxchasseur. Once the full of the waspnest was in one spot Violet spun a sphere of force around the entirety of the Yeuxchasseur.

Then she exerted all of her will; focused everything of herself down on one adamant goal. She fell to her knees, bare, bloody and exposed but was completely unaware of it — as all of her energies were locked onto the effort of pressing the cage of her will down ever smaller and tighter on the Yeuxchasseur. In the final end, the inevitable happened and the explodables exploded but this was not at all the same Violet who had lost a plane over the ocean — she was somehow equal to the whole force and contained and quelled the blast; even as it pure stole away her consciousness.

If it cost her that then it cost them both their one chance to see one of the wonders of the Scientific Age. Once the Geneva carnage had begun then the sensitive instruments at Cern had nosed it out and monitored the wunderkinder at one remove. That had not been at all enough for those keen and inquisitive minds or the anxious parents. They all had bundled into a van, along with a bundle, of instruments and got to the Square at just the time to record the how Dash had managed to draw all of the missiles together and get them to impact on each other. Helen groaned at the memory: that really had been the impression herself, her husband and all of the onlookers had taken away; of Dash saving the day and of a girl who had only managed to get herself in an awful stew.

To know now that all the time when Violet was all but passed out (from her superhuman effort as she put her scheme into action) the girl had heard her brother praised to the sky. To be fair to Dash: he never had got the full of the plan; he only knew that Violet had asked him to get to the square and go his fastest. He didn't understand what had happened any better than anyone else. Indeed, Helen now understood (but only in hindsight) that with the state Violet had been in … not only was the girl unidentifiable to the scientists but she didn't stand out at all from any of the other victims of this explosive incident. Had anyone understood at all where the power surge had come from it ought to have been those scientists.

The radiation experts watched and wondered and whispered to the parents that whatever forces their dark daughter was harnessing they were doing more damage to her than to anyone else and she had best not ever think of starting a family. That hidden secret (once thrown out) had cast a very long shadow indeed: unbeknownst to all Violet wasn't entirely out of it and had heard all to well the news that harrowed her down to her very soul.

Violet had known! Even now, so far after the incident, Helen can still barely swallow it: that in all those months, when she and Bob had not even been able to knuckle down and have a serious talk about The Talk that was needed; in all of that time Violet had known. She'd known and known too that nobody was trusting her even enough to tell her about her own body.

Helen winces, as she remembers how it hadn't hardly been Violet who had concerned any of the family back then. After immediate wounds, the problem was about how hard it was going to be for Dash to give up that run that he had set his heart on. With all of the consternation that was stirred up in Geneva the judgement was that it would be far the best to decamp for home immediately. Dash did not ever get his test run but had to hear that the immediate, empirical, results from the field made him far more like his father than he ever cared to be — having a Power whose power depended on the weight of the mood that he was in.

… … … … …

 _Which is the sum and total of all Helen can get out of Violet; however much of an effort she puts in or by whichever angle she comes at her daughter. Violet will admit to being unhappy about not being good enough and to being upset over how the story of her own body unwound. That is all and everything which she will tell about how she felt and how she is feeling. Everything else about her training, learning and battling are kept to scant dry facts._

 _Violet might be there in body yet the girl is fast vanishing from her family in every way that counts. Helen hates to do so but she has to be a virtual spy on her own daughter: to learn that Violet has redrawn all her electives at school; to move into physics, chemistry, biology and really science in a large and unexpected way; apart from some languages. Like any girl her age Violet puts in hours on her computer and her phone but the calls are long-distance, untraceable and not always English. Rick Dicker made what he called a weather check, when Violet was at school one day. He had the girl's tech away for long hours but, by the chagrin on his face, the Agency must not have been able to crack them at all. Puzzles enough but then there are the hours Violet spends with Edna Mode and just where can a schoolgirl find the cash and the nous that Violet has?_

 _Out of a past of devastation and a present of mystification Helen is at a loss to account for how the stranger who Violet is fast becoming can also come to be so much of a homebody and childminder; while her brother and parents all do their best to spend their lives way outside of the suitcase that the government calls a home. If Violet wants to housemind and babysit then Helen is only too glad to have any support whatever, in this tight place. She will take what she can get and not look further. Far, far later and much too late Helen will know how she should never have left Violet as a dangling thread!_

 _As ever though; Violet cannot win to the head of anyone's priority list. Helen is entirely serious about getting her law certificates and being an active legal eagle for powered people. The public and the authorities alike are to fickle to be trusted; while even her own husband is too giddy to be entirely reliable. Helen has always kept her own ground and she means to keep on doing so; even if future battles are going to be in the courts. The only help that Helen can depend on is coming from Violet and that is a puzzle in itself; after all that has happened to the family (to Violet most of all) how is it that the girl can take so aptly to babyminding?_

 _Dash is only a kid; Helen can understand why he'd rather stay over at pals than jostle around in this pig pen and he has so very many of them that he never seems to stay in the same place for one day or night. Bob, though, is her husband and (as hard as a place this small is for a person as large as he is) he ought to be making an effort for her. Instead of that he seems to be spending most of his time haunting their wreck of a home and chivvying the builders into working harder, longer, better, faster._

 _That is a worry all of it's own. They will be moving back to the family home soon but there is just no way it will be quite the home it was and they aren't quite the family or team that they were. All of their lives seem to be fractured into befores and afters whether that be a Supers Act; Nomanisan; Omnidroids, Syndrome & demolition or Violet & demolition. The capstone to that is that Helen knows, with a sense of dread, that Mr Incredible Parr will never welcome or adapt to any difference in his world._

 _His world was the shining and glorious one of the superhero heyday. He did not ever accede to the Supers Act and expected the world to go back to exactly the way it had been; once the climate for heroes brightened again. He just never got that you never get to go back to the way you were. He will certainly not find the exact same home-life. team-life or family-life as he did have. Helen cannot bear to think how far off the rails her daughter and (even more worryingly) her husband might go. It is almost all to much for even an Elastigirl to stretch enough to cope with. Helen can only resign herself to facing whatever demons will come knocking at the door when they move back into their reborn home. Still and yet she hasn't plumbed the depths Violet has sunk to; to know that the demon to fear most is within doors._


	5. Down & Dealing

— **«» Mr Incredible Hulk «» —**

 **«» No Incredible Family - Chapter Five «»**

 _ **«» all about returning home in body but not spirit «»**_

 **o0O¥O0o**

Mr Incredible seems determined to be as bad a hero as he can be; to prove right all of everybody who said superbeings are a danger and should be shot on sight. He is being just about as human as any berserk elephant. It is a bad, bad time to be any kind of a criminal in the town. Mr Incredible is omnipresent, intransigent, unsleeping, adamant. Whatever evil it is that has just happened in his life it is being paid out on the Metroville criminal community with a vengeance. Disaster though this is shaping into for the villains, for his reputation, for the very standing and existence of superpowers he cannot react in any other way than this by the very way he sees the world.

It has been months of living cheek by jowl with his family and the baby in a government matchbox as their own home got rebuilt yet again. They are just moved in for the third time and all the little differences of the place hit home that this isn't quite the same home that they moved out of. It makes Bob Parr mad all over again: at how his own daughter could not keep in her powers but had to throw a teen strop and throw back at him all of his efforts.

 _Hasn't he give everything he has to make a house, a home, a family, a team and a life for his wife and kids? Yes he blasted well has and he keeps on doing it, taking it, being lampooned as the New Fagin for selling his superkids and superwife to every brand that wants to use their images. Blackmail! Common, criminal blackmail but oh so damned legal._

Those are Bob Parr's thoughts and this is the deal that has him raging. Being as the Agency is spending all of that cost (of wiping the slate clean and keeping the Parr name clear while letting them stay on in Metroville) then they are going to claw every cent of it back with a redrawn Supers Act. All of the rights to the Incredible brand (and of every superhero who might ever want government help) are vested in the Agency but it is Mr Incredible himself who has to be the front man; to hold the bank account and take the flak in return for a tenth of six-figure earnings and a heaping of curses. His thoughts are in a churn: all week long he battles to make sense of it all; even as he battles and batters the villains

MONDAY

Mr Incredible burrows raging hands into the frontage of the crooked hideaway he is assaulting. As overwrought and supercharged as he is he actually manages to tear away and suspend the entire chunk of masonry ... to send it hurtling onto the roadway and hospitalising, for sure, all of the mobsters who are still clinging onto it. No rush at all to call in the cops though: none of these guys are going anywhere anytime soon; but he himself certainly has to be up and away.

Mr Incredible leaps up from off of the roadway: to jump skywards and onwards His boot heels cut into the tarmac; cratering it with the force of his rage. He has to get home and to get home right now; well before the volcano boiling inside of him goes from simmering to explosive and he goes that one step too far. It is a miracle that he can still sense the slippage to that point of no return and still step back from it. He tells himself so in his mind.

 _Nobody better moan about that; I haven't done anything devastating any time at all. I can't possibly have; I only go after the crooks, if they're a bit more shaken up who cares. Yes and who cares how shaken up my family is; Violet damn well does not and she hasn't half the excuse to lash out as me. She isn't living with a bedmate who has quit on all bed sport. Maybe she is living with parents whose sex lives are as sterile as space but how dare she call us on it and even offer herself in place of Helen. Now I don't even know how to look at Violet and all those months living at close quarters didn't help at all. Blast! There isn't one corner of my life I can call my own! Well everyone better just watch out! I am so sick of it!_

TUESDAY

It is a dangerous game of brinkmanship Mr Incredible plays; made all the more so that he patrols alone with nobody to rein him in. More and more he is pushing his family away; refusing to have anybody out on patrol with him. Now every day of the week just falls into the same deadly pattern: one heroic round, but perturbed and unbalanced by the demons dancing in his skull. Dancing till they incite him out of the daily crusade and into a spiral of increasing brutality that accelerates to some near knuckle escapade that he has to break away from before he goes over the line. He is okay so long as nobody is observing him too closely: people are saved, crooks captured, disasters averted and pets rescued; just not in the good way that deserves public applause. He has turned a building into a dollhouse on Monday and it hasn't got any better at all, in the days following.

«Zzzt ... Break In at Lakeside Bank; Police unable to attend; Supers requested.»

Mr Incredible is on the incident in almost a moment, only, once on the site, there isn't the least trace of any larceny to be seen ... not till he eyes the scene across the lake; at the Lakeside Link Bank! «Police Unable to Attend» meant the crooks had blown the bridge from town to quays. A slight miscommunication has become a fierce obstacle: whatever else he is Mr Incredible is no kind of a long jumper. There is just no way to vault that puddle; as there is not any run-off or any take-off from this narrow wharfside. Frozone can shoot him an ice bridge across the water but there is no Frozone; he is fishing other waters these days. No sooner had the heroes become legal again than Frozone had taken his own hero-self off and into business:

«What can I say Bob; I'm doing good, firing up my cool ice and saving the world. Got me my own firm: Zero Zone; freezing out that evil ol' pollution. Doing real good and not selling my family way down that ol river just to get a sip of champagne. Its legal, its legit; its megabucks and my Honey be happy I'm not playing that hero riff no more. Getting me all the honey I want at home these days, know what I'm saying.»

Oh yes, Mr Incredible knows what Frozone is saying; it rings in Bob's mind.

 _That Frozone! Finds it so easy to sell out, to split from my side. We're hardly still friends, buddies, pals; certainly not partners any more. Just great! I get to do it all by himself! Well who needs partners anyway?_

That is how Mr Incredible thinks ... as he whips up a civic statue and hurls it to fly across the lake. Wayne Bruscar, famous batsman, bowls into the getaway van as it races along the quay and splits it apart … in the instant before it is blasted through the wall of a nearby shop. Whatever is left of the miscreants Mr Incredible figures the ambulance guys can scrape up; he is for home before he does any the worse.

WEDNESDAY

«Zzzt ... Break Out at State Penitentiary. Inmates in control. All staff safely evacuated. Authorities unable to regain access. Supers requested.»

Mr Incredible arrives on site as quickly as his supercar can pace the countryside and gets the lowdown in no time at all.

«There has been a significant rise in the influx of detainees over recent weeks that has impaired our screening procedures so that numbers of inmates were admitted without being sanitised of weaponry. Furthermore, a Supervillain has been incarcerated without our awareness. With Firedrake inside, in addition to their guns, they have sufficient firepower to keep us at a distance.»

Mr Incredible mutters, inside of his head.

 _Just great, now it's my fault for catching too many criminals; doing my job too well am I? Maybe I should cut back, I can ration myself; yeh, why not let everybody go free on even numbered days! We can do a family deal: Violet is wild enough these days, she can kill them off while I let them off. Why not; whichever way I pitch it folks call Foul Ball. If I'm not right for the job they should get in some of the other Supers; oh, I forgot, Syndrome killed them all off. Looks like I'm all they've got; see how they like this trick then._

With that Mr Incredible rounds the building and comes to the fields at the back where power pylons lope across the plains. Seizing one and ensuring it keeps a connection to the wire and the power he caber-tosses it onto the steel cage-top of the exercise yard. Metal connects to metal, cage to balconies, to bars, doors and walkways. Electricity races and rages through the interlocking web of metalwork, felling inmates everywhere that it flows. Whatever about the condition of the inmates the prison is tame and Mr Incredible is in no mood to care whether the authorities like his methods or not. If they aren't happy then they can do the job themselves; he is gone.

THURSDAY

«Zzzt ... Break Down at Zoo. Marine World Passengers Trapped in Underwater Trains. Supers requested.»

Mr Incredible is hardly dashing in response to this appeal: he cannot see the problem and can hardly bring himself to care anyway. It is a new ride and not one he has taken the family on yet (not the way family feelings are right now) so it is a while before he gets the full picture.

«There are two Marine Worlds, Arctic and Tropic. Trains run under the water in transparent tunnels. It is all automatic but a jolt in the electricity grid yesterday disrupted the systems. Trains are stopped and locked inside both tunnels. Climate control is off so the passengers will either boil or freeze and there is no air supply,»

Mr Incredible barely clips out a civil reply; his head buzzy at the fact that this is his fault too.

 _Okay! Fine! He'll get those trains out in super quick time then maybe everybody will get off his back._

Mr Incredible speeds to one end of one tunnel and wrenches open the doors; gasping as a hurricane of stale air engulfs him. Even so; he does not spare an instant in making it to the other end of the tunnel and wrenching apart those doors too. He puts his palms to the train end and pushes; sending the whole equipage squealing, jolting, bolting along the track and entirely out of the far doorway. His actions are officially heroic yet barely shining and what Mr Incredible thinks is worse yet.

 _So what if it they get a rough ride, they can just be grateful that they're safe and never mind the odd whiplash or broken bone. They can worry; I've still got a whole other tunnel to see to. It's one damn thing after another and they've all got warm bodies to cuddle up to when they get home. What've I got? Nothing! Can't even bring my eldest out to help; what the tarnation is wrong with Violet. When I need her help she's as useful as bubblegum but then she gets in one of her moods and God save anyone or anything that gets in her way. Was it too much to ask for just one partner: to take to bed, to take on patrol._

His work is done as it turns out ... for the entrance to the Arctic Odyssey is already full of a throng being covered up, warmed up and healed up by patient medics. The tunnel doors are neatly sliced open and somehow the train is already empty of all the occupants. This in the time Mr Incredible spent just rough-handing his carriages out. Full of confusion Mr Incredible asks for a solution.

«It was that new Super, the young girl, the one with the light show. She turned up, just as you were pushing the other train through, and got her own rescue going. She must be busy; didn't stay to talk to you. Lucky we've got so many superheroes around; you must be glad of how she has saved you half the work.»

Mr Incredible only nods before spurting off; a stoic hero, his mission accomplished. An irate, incandescent and indignant superhero; one that dare not so much as open his mouth, he is raging that much and his head is so full.

 _He! Mr Incredible! He has been upstaged, out-rescued by some junior, Judy-come-lately. How dare she! How dare she have the cheek to make a better save of it than him. No manners; none at all! She didn't give the least sign of attention to his presence. Himself! Mr Incredible. He is the veteran, the famous face, the winning hero! Damn the arrogance of her! Just great, if that is all of the respect he gets he'd just love to see how they did without a Mr Incredible!_

FRIDAY

«Zzzt ... Fugitive Seen. Escaped Supervillain Firedrake reported at Trainyard. Superhero Response Requested.»

Mr Incredible exults as he accelerates to the Trainyard

 _Oh Yes! This is just the thing for me: a good, old fashioned, showdown, slugfest; I can let out my feelings, all over Firedrake, and make the guy wish he never left prison._

But: «Zzzt ... Fugitive apprehended. Firedrake Reincarcerated. Respondent: the new kid on the block, that Glow Girl.»

«Zzzt ... Fire at Mullingar Mansions. More Than Ten People Trapped. Firefighters Unable to Enter. Supers Requested.»

Mr Incredible grinds his teeth and his thoughts seethe; caught between duty and ennui. The hero in him not yet so dead as not to respond.

 _A fire! This isn't hardly what I need right now. I hate fires there's nothing to get your hands on; nothing for a guy to let loose on. Blast! its not like I can ignore I though, can I. Those are real people and they're in serious danger right now. So what if I'm not driving as fast as I was when I was going the other way, to the Trainyard. The roads are simply busier here, that's all, nothing else to it._

Even for his reluctance the sight of the fire sets Mr Incredible aglow. The distant gleam of flames sparks up his adrenalin, reminds him how good it feels to save a life. Mr Incredible hits the gas; hard. Then: «Zzzt ... Fire Alert Downgraded. All Occupants Safely Evacuated. Respondent: the Rainbow Miss.»

SATURDAY

«Zzzt ... Party Boat Sinking on Lake. Has Hit Uncharted Rubble. Rescue Required.»

Mr Incredible winces; this is so embarrassing. It all rolls over in his mind and memory.

 _I really will have to put on a good show for this one; beat the clock there; bring all the boat-folk back to safety before they even take a breath. Damn and I just know what that nasty piece of rubble is going to be. I really ought to have stuck around for the clear-up the other day; yeh after I beat down those bank robbers with a chunk of civic pride. But I don't see why. It all just doesn't seem that important anymore; there's no fun, no excitement, no praise. This isn't the world me and Elastigirl had; huh this isn't even the Elastigirl I used to know. Ah why don't I hook up with that Rainbow Demon who keeps trumping me anyhow. No! Enough of that I've got to get my game-face on for this one._

He need not bother: «Zzzt ... Damaged Boat and All Aboard Safely in Harbour. Respondent: that shimmering, new Super femme.»

SUNDAY

«Zzzt ... All Rescue Units and Available Supers report to the Crimehouse demolished on Monday. Bunch of schoolbrats ferreted out a cache of weapons and activated them. Area is already exploding with brats trapped and locals pinned down.»

In the privacy of his own skull Mr Incredible is cursing and grousing mightily.

 _Damnit can nobody leave me alone for five freaking minutes. I did good on that gang that I cleaned out on Monday. How the blazes was I meant to know I had to play minesweeper too? Anyways, the aftercare is down to the Police Department so nobody can pin this one on me. Right? Wrong; freaking wrong: they so will blame the whole mess on me. Better get down there and pull the chestnuts out of the fire before anyone gets themselves hurt and I land up getting a royal roasting._

«Zzzt ... Explosives rendered harmless. All affected citizenry transported to hospital. Cheers to the sparkplug girl.»

Mr Incredible is unnecessary again but as one crisis goes down another springs right up

«Zzzt ... Syndrome Alert. Robot Parts Reanimating at State Penitentiary. Superhero Response Requested.»

Mr Incredible nearly snarls out loud with the thoughts bursting inside.

 _Just freaking great! One more total wipe-out of a patrol fiasco. That junebug, herogirl has gone and beaten me to the punch all over the place today and all. Yeh and that isn't even the worst of; everybody is just going to be so down on me for not being a good enough hero for them. How dare they; don't ask me to play janitor as well as soldier. Just because Miss Spectrum Girl got one more explosive case wrapped-up and parcelled away long before I had a chance to get there._

 _Now I'm going to have to book all the way out to the State Penitentiary; just because that stupid, improvised taser I used on the prison breakout has kickstarted Syndrome's old monster, the one they keep secure there. Well at least this is one job I do get; Little Miss Shimmer probably isn't even old enough to drive and last I heard she was still all the way over in crime town. Mr Incredible is the man!_

No he isn't: «Zzzt ... State Penitentiary Secure. Robot Parts Deactivated. Thank God for that Lightshow Lass.»

Mr Incredible sports a terrifying grin; lately he has really gotten to know how things looks to the Buddy Pines, to the Syndromes of the world. This Sunday has been naught but rejection upon rejection and his thoughts are as bleak as a Stalingrad winter.

 _Doesn't matter where or how I do good on a save I'm only getting more and more sour looks off of people. This week, today, has been the lowest: busting my gut from pillar to post and back for nothing. I'm as good as begging people to let me help them and all I do is find myself second string to this latest spandex wonder. Lightshow Lass, Rainbow Miss, Glowing Girl, Shimmer, whoever the devil she is. Damned if I don't know how Buddy Pine must have felt when he got the boot from me. His own hero slung him right out and into that patrol car. Why the damn shouldn't he come back and teach folks not to disrespect him. Well right now that cocksure, uppity gloworm is way out in the boondocks ... the town is mine! See if she can get back in time to save it from me! Want to call me a monster? I'll show you all just what a monster is. Omnidroid attack! That's a bee-sting to what you're going to get. If that Tinkerbell thinks she can play any of her fireworks on me I'll turn her into nothing but paste. About time people learn who the real powers are_


	6. Cloudy Concerns

— _**«» Mr Incredible Reed «» —**_

 _ **«» No Incredible Family - Chapter Six «»**_

 _ **«» all about: a hero at home is only as good as his heart is «»**_

 **o0O¥O0o**

In his life right now, what Mr Incredible regrets the most is Syndrome's demise; what better partner could there have been for him? They could have been associates, compadres; united in being rejected by the world. The public, their buddies, even their family would have been as nothing to them. Not to be — Mr Incredible has caused the death of the one human; who he will now feel fit to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with. Whatever about that; he is simply going to have to run along solo and be a worse villain than Syndrome, all by his ownsome.

Why should he not? Not when all he has sacrificed for his family is thrown back at him! Their Federal masters has felt that the Insuricare bash and the Syndrome crash linked Parr and Incredible to closely for comfort. They'd proposed relocation and reallocation; but he has fought back and made a case to keep the roots they'd built in Metroville. Government (being Government) crunched the numbers, drew up a bill and an act.

The bill is how much the country wanted from the heroes (for the kindness of shielding them) and the act is the New Supers Act. It mean that the Incredibles' visibility became a saleable commodity and ninety per cent of all cash (flowing from sale of their images) went to the federalés. Naturally secrecy is inscribed in the deal: so the glorious Mr Incredible now also casts the darkling shadow of a recast Fagin, mercilessly cashing on his own family.

Mr Incredible Croeseus should only have been just a facade, another mask and a necessary mask: if he is to preserve the life that he and Helen have with their three super kids, their three supered kids. Why then can Helen not just carry on as before; instead of deciding that any superstyle lifestyle absolutely will not include kids? She has not merely made it the reason for no more mating but even the reason for no more sporting at all. She says she does not want to bring any more youngsters into the dangers of their life but they have already got three, so what does it matter if they have more? There is no good reason; no reason at all in fact: unless she no longer sees him as her male, masculine man, but only the as the pimp he appears as.

No! Nothing has changed and nothing will change: not from the good old days, when they'd been a twosome supersomething. Not even if they now have children: have one kid who is as different from himself as she can be and two other kids who are as different from each other as they can be. None of it counts: they are all entirely and only superheroes. Jack-Jack has finally shown his tricks and will settle down into one or another of them, around five, like the others have. Dash is lapping it all up like a cat with cream and even exercises his power at school: on the track and on tricks. Violet, who is so unhappy to be called just "Invisible" and made into nothing, she goes around retiring villains permanently and still gets applauded.

He would hate to learn that it is by intent, not by accident, that Violet has become the grim reaper, but government has put paid to any hopes of rapport with his daughter. Back when the researchers had decided to inform the Parr parents, that the wonderful invisibility of their daughter, also meant the wonderful sterility of their daughter. It had been right in the fallout of one ambush on the family. There had been no time to deal with the issue right then and, as time went on, it became ever harder to raise the matter with the girl. What did it matter anyway, it woud be years before Violet will be thinking about weans, besides she had not caught a word that is said, regardless.

Not so: they all know how determined Violet can be; they shoud have guessed, should have predicted tht she would be aware. She had heard, she had learnt more, and she had waited out all the time for her parents to turn to her, talk to her and support her. They never had done and all it has done is to drive Violet away from any ordinary family affairs. Believing she has nothing, knowing how her father is needing, Violet makes play to take Helen's spot at play. Somehow he had turned her down and is still turning her down. Violet is never the one to let go of anything and it is getting ever harder to resist her insistence. Hah! If he is to become the villain, then what need to resist? Being the decent man had only meant that Violet had lost sight of herself: at first inside of herself and then outwardly, in an explosion of power that nearly writ the end of them all. Being a hero has cost him his daughter's heart.

The crowds too are drawing away from him; he isn't the darling of their eye anymore and they are starting to have doubts about his ways of doing things. Everything he does only makes extra trouble and nothing he does is good enough. He is sick of walking away from muttering crowds. What do they know anyway, all they care about is the newest, brighest, latest Super. Right now that means that Shimmer Girl who is jumping in on every Call before he has even got the car in gear. Well dandy; if they don't like the taste of Mr Nice Incredible he will just see how they like Mr Nasty Incredible ... Oh Yes!

Zzzzt ... ... Zzzzt ... ... Zzzzt ... ... Zzzzt ... ... Zzzzt ... ... Zzzzt ... ... He has let his patrol car radio fade into background noise as he falls into his brown study — but one call catches his ear, entices him to one last stint of Supering: « _Zzzt ... Masonry Threat. Babylon Towers Falling. Supers Requested_.» He knows that name: it is the old print firm, the one that had made all the Superhero pin-up calendars and junk, back in the day; heck, that is why he had asked to be relocated to Metroville at all ... for the joke of it.

Oh great, well he will be the star Super one last time and save the place; it is as good a way as any to mark the change in him, the turning point. People will look back and say « _The Printworks, yeh, that is the last time we saw the old Mr Incredible_.» The first one who is going to be a witness is the watchman who ambles out to meet him in the worksyard; puffing on a disreputable, old pipe as he stretches out an arm to shake Mr Incredible's hand and welcome him:

« _Glad to see you Mr Incredible, sure is good that one of the old crowd made it out here to help out. Its nothing much to worry about, the old block has been in mothballs these last few years, so there ain't nobody in there using the place. Reck'n that's why there's this big rebuild on, to pump some life back in the joint. Sure is a shame the scaffolding took a lurch, its not holding up nothing anymores. Reckon you're the guy to bump it back into place. Mind you don't make any sparks; they never did take all the chemicals out of there._ »

The old guy waves his glowing, burning pipe in the direction of the combustible problem and leaves Mr Incredible to it. The superhero goes at it with way more dedication than he has devoted to anything down the days of the last few weeks: hardly wanting to disappointment his veteran fan: Mr Incredible casts his eyes downwards, as he raises the scaffolding up heavenwards; edging it forward with all the legs off of the ground, so as to not set off the least of sparks. That single-minded, simple-minded intention is to cost him dear.

He does not consider all the aspects, all the prospects: not least of which is the pail, balancing on a spar above. It topples loose, to come bucketing down, with a drag, a rasp and a fountain of sparks that makes a supernova of the upper floor. Fire and flinders and fenestration are cast outwards in an explosive blaze that, luckily burns itself out in short order. It leaves a blitz of paper in it's wake, that storms out and wings aloft on currents of fire-warmed air.

Mr Incredible is assailed by a dazzling paperstorm, a whirlwind of calendar pages, a vortex of heroes as they were at their crest. In his eyes only one image is eminent and dominant; amongst all the primal hues: the poster-girl pin-ups of Elastigirl:

Here she is huddled up, hugging her knees; those brilliant, red boots seeming to extend forever but ending, at last, in a baby-soft band of thigh. Oh the hiss and whisper of fabric as he had inched them off, to lay bare the long, luscious length of her legs.

Now she is doing the splits; the crisp white lines of her costume creased into contours that drew the eye downwards to that sweet vee; the jointure of her legs where here leotard stretched and swelled around a very volcano of passion that he had ignited, night after night.

Next to pass across his vision is her as a dominatrix: standing spread-legged, erect and upright, head raised, eyes commanding and arms fiercely crossed across her chest. Ah, the many times she had elastically wind and twine her arms all about her torso: teasingly tempting him to tussle with her in a torrid tug-of-war that, somehow, he had always wind up winning ... to be unwinding her arms, to uncover breasts and nipples already engorged and erect from their foreplay.

This image has her playful, sportive: bent backwards over a chair, body arched, an arch smile on the sideturned face. Taut and tight across her tense tummy the raised, red ridge of her belt, a belt that he could feel under his hands even now. More familiar to him than his own belt buckle from the many times he had swung her about by his super-strength till she hung head-down and he could hold her their for all of the time it took for her to make known how much her mouth admired the manliness of him and she surely could take her own, sweet time in expressing her appreciation.

An action pose whirls by: Elastigirl in a boxer's pose, red gauntleted hands held high; the gloves burned bright in his mind and his memory ... those early, easy times when Superlad and Superlass will steal sweet moments between missions — water-tank tops, powerstation stanchions, bridge-girder nests, skyscraper heights and more became beds of passion for two young Supers, keyed to the nth degree by danger and risk. Those gloves: they were always the very last thing to come off; once the two of them were stripped to the skin and standing, he behind her and pressed closer than a stamp to an envelope. he had lay his hands on her bare shoulders and draw his hands along the bridge of bare flesh from nape to mitt; entering the funnelled glovetops to ease them down all the length of her arms to her guiding hands that might lie across a midriff that wanted a massage, dogleg up to breasts wanting a caress or plunge down to urge him directly into action ... meanwhile her head will be turned entirely around and their lips will be enacting a prologue long before the main show.

All of that life is now withering, spiralling away, and gone to ashes — like the fire-tossed calendar pages that tumble about his head and then are gone. Mr Incredible snatches desperately, forlornly, hopelessly at images that he can never have again, at a good life gone by. He only pauses, as the watchman lays a hand on his shoulder, before speaking to him.

« _Sure, and you did good, fella; never you mind 'bout some old calendar_ s.»

« _That's my wife_.» Mr Incredible just manages to get out.

The watchman responds with an appreciative whistle:

« _Thought so, that's won me a bet down the club. Got time to have a bevy with me? Course you have, you'll need to wet your whistle after all the heat n dust. Come along with me; the fancy, schmancy block next door is mine ... not all of it, mind; just the Custodian's Apartment. The all of it belongs along with the Printworks; it was built back in the day for the workforce and a grand place they made of it, just to be showing what a swell firm they were. Just through this snicket now, mind your head; I'm the first one on the corner, not so high class as the managers' up high there but the best of the rest._

 _In the way of things even Lord High Muck A Muck will need to be having a word or two with jannie at times. Natch they willn't dream of rubbing out the elbows of their city suits in some grubby matchbox; so they built my place twice as big as any of the other broom-pushers'. Mind, my folks weren't even here when it all went up; my grandpop hadn't hardly been born and he was ways off, in the big city._

 _This here's my place, come on in, make yourself at home. Oh! Sorry, sorry; where's my manners gone got to ... shoulda introduced by myself a whiles ago: Artie Donbrook. Come on in, settle yourself down in the parlour here; I built it in my own self. The hallway here useta be ways oversize so I thought to myself to cut it down n make a room outta it. Put a hatch through to the kitchen too; I can hear you just dandy through here whiles I brew the java. Them frames are mine, the gew gaws are the lawfully wedded's, she passed away three years gone and I've not changed any of it. Here ya go: milk, cream, sugar; knock yourself out_.»

« _Yessir; wife n family; nothing better for a guy. Pity that you're having a thin time of it; now. Don't you be looking at me that ways! My pop is Services too, Fire n Rescue down in San Fran n I was a cop, for my sins; seen the signs times enough. Easy enough to lose your way when you're fighting the world everyday; you forget the important battles are the ones inside of yourself. See here: if you're around printing enough, you catch the image bug and I've mates enough in the industry, so all these pictures round the walls, they're unique, unpublished; you can read a story in them, if you've an eye for it._

 _Here's a fresh one just got started; that Northern Lights Girl rescuing the horses. What all good them animal rights doughnuts thought they were at liberating the horses outta them stables n inta the marsh I've no mind to guess. Sure an I've gone soft in my heart for the lass. My folks is tinkers from way back n the feeling for horseflesh be bred deep in us. Kinda magic; how the colleen's white hair runs back in the wind of their speed; while she's laid along that white stallion's back n it's but galloping on mist._

 _Up along that row, right there, theres a tale been growing for years now: got your affair with Lastigirl right from when you were single heroes all the ways to the family team ... be a tearing shame to hang up four single frames. Did you reck'n on being a team or just fall into it?_ »

The conversation kicks off from there, each having as much to say as the other; Artie has seen it all, Mr Incredible has been there ... the two are on a wavelength and time flows away.

« _Reck'n I'd best see you on your way though, less'n you're going to stay the night. Fore you go, I've something for you, seeing how you were so tore up losing them old calendars; this is the best of all of them; its yours now. Not so pretty as them other Lastigirl's; pure action shots every month and some of them pretty grim, but thems real heroics. Well, sure has been cosy the two of us chatting away here, call back any time now_.»

Mr Incredible reels back to his motor dazed, amazed and stunned to have met such regular guy. Artie has treated him as nothing more than a mate to have a jaw with and given him the best day he had has in far too long, just by that simple courtesy. Mr Incredible is accustomed to any audience he met (while in his hero role) to have their own agenda: from just wanting to be with a Super to desiring to paste them all out and be the only one power left. Bob ncredible sit in his powercar, for the longest time: turning the pages of the calendar and the pages of his memory. The calendar collects together the best of the monochrome news pics of Elastigirl genuinelly in action. The images send a jolt right to his heart: returning his mind to what it meant and means to be a Superhero. How can he betray what she has been, what he has been, what he has fought so hard to keep hold of?

Over dinner, that evening, he recounts the incidents, if not the insights and errors, of his day to the family. That same night, he recounts the pleasures of days-gone-by; in hopes that Helen will restore their amorous dalliance. For all that, Helen stays defiant against him, as she repeats her causes for staying unromanced. He has to creep to bed with not with his hands filled with Helen but with his head filled with the vision of the heroine on the steed.

For all that she masks herself in primary hues, he knows who she is: the white hair is something but the familiar, slender form, that he had once tried to hold hostage, that means oh so much more. What if Mirage does want to make a new life for herself; get a name for herself and match the Incredibles at their own game, in their own town? Bob Incredible can only wish her good luck with that; he still has nothing but dreams to keep him company through the night.

It starts with sheep bounding across a gate, bleating and baahing, but, soon enough, neighing, nickering, whinnying and racing one another. The sheep are morphing into horses that become one dense herd of galloping steeds. From out of the heart of the storm there springs a rainbow, a brilliant, prismatic, corona of light, that flows into human shape. Here is one young woman, bare-armed, bare-legged and bare-bodied. The head alone is covered by the dragonesque helmet of Rainbow, that he is so failair with from the news. Two, white pony-tails of hair are thrust up from the mask, as if they are horns. The horses blur into a steaming, whickering, caracoling, hurricane of an escort. The bright lady soars aloft and draws him along in her rainbow slipstream, as the herd dashes beneath them.

That is until he falls behind and falls to earth in an avenue of statuary: broken figures, broken buildings, broken boats, trains and more. In the far distance, at the end of the avenue, he can see his family huddling together. He does his best to reach them but the more he presses forward the more the ranks of the monuments is swelled by reproving, marble citizenry. All of their gazes, their frozen gestures, censure him and their obdurate forms impede him. There seems no hope of an end to it; no chance of alteration; not till an omnidroid sphere rumbles into existence behind him. It bowls right over Mr Incredible yet leaves him untouched, as it rolls along the avenue. In the wake of the omnidroid every statue, every buiding, every impediment is crsuhed to dust: a fine, golden dust that rises, whirls and sparkles in the air. The bullion cloud swirls about the omnidroid, as it reaches his family, and then the machine is gyrating, dancing, weaving in the space between Mr Incredible and all the other Incredibles. It builds an impentrable wall of silken aurulent rebuff between Mr Incredible. Mr Parr. Mr Bob Incredible and his family. Then the omnidroid spins about to face him and it has his own face!

Next the omnodroid flys into the air, dwindling as it rises, till it is no more than a round ball of soot puffing out of a watchman's pipe. Beneath the soot-ball, out of the glowing bowl of the pipe there sprouts the exact girderwork that was around the printworks of reality, yes and those very printworks themselves. All of it is held aloft by the strength of Mr Incredible and, from every window, there leans out family, friends and fans and everyone of them is cheering him. Yet so, it is not him they cheer, but the younger, earlier, better Mr Incredible of the azure costume.

Once more a fire starts, once more the air is confettied with images of Elastigirl but these are not images but the very person herself, in every incarnation from earliest days to Syndrome days, in costume and out. The more they approach to the present the fewer and larger do the images become, as they merge together, to become the self-same Helen he has bid good night but a short while ago. Her nightwear melts away into the cardinal tones of an Incredible uniform but a sheet of ice blossoms out, even as he attempts to embrace her. All that Bob Incrdible can do is hug tight to a miniature galcier that datkens, even as it melts in his arms, to unlock the girl within.

It is Rainbow in all her apparel for a moment, then the unclad but yet masked body of Mirage, finally it is all Mirage and only Mirage and nothing but Mirage. Bob Incredible wakes from his dream, sure that one day he will hold the true and bare Mirage in his arms, to make of her what he will. For the now, he awakens in a tangle of sheets, to Helen calling him to a crisis. In the first time for an eternity he feels the thrill of action in his veins and the fire of yearning alive in his loins.


	7. Skyhigh Suffering

« § » — CHAPTER SEVEN »» SKYHIGH SUFFERING — « § »

Mr Inedible whirls around to his team and commands: « Begin »

The production meshes into gear. Divisidash is excused chores; being diminutive and cute and entirely unfit to play the brute. That portion of Divisgirl keeps in line below Rainbow at all times; it is enough to keep a binding drag on the heroine. The other Ersatz Incredibles stay on the pilotdeck and take their shifts at making Rainbow into a whipping girl. To be sure Rainbow gets the full impact of the treatment, the fake Invisigirl holds the hero steady and with her back towards the whiphands. All occurs under a camera run by Gash and with voices supplied by Erasigirl.

That skeletal body is unexpectedly good at sounding like other folk and gives an evil twist t all that happens: Rainbow is flagged as a captive Mirage and the victim of the true, inner, darkness and sickness of the Actual Incredibles; the focus of their desire for torture and vengeance. The adult-seeming Ersatz Incredibles share the historical whip between them, as they lash into Rainbow with a venom: paying back on her vulnerable form all of the insults the freaks have endured through life.

Divisigirl excels at taking on the form, the bulk, the strength and the character of whoever her fissible body is impersonating. While playing Mr Incredible she has all of the mass, size and power of Mr Incredible, to the point where she can go head-to-head with the man himself and all of that force is pouring into the whiplashes upon Rainbow. They bite deep into the heroine's flesh, to the full-thickness of the whip. All of the hate and bile, that has grown from every rebuff by society, drives into every blow of the whip. Rainbow is taking a flensing meant for all of norm society: hatred for an entire race is concentrated on her slight form.

More terribly yet, Divisigirl is more than blind rage and destruction, she has the brain and the flexibility to use the whip in varying ways, according to her character. By sheer cunning the false lady of the Incredibles can do as much injury as any brawny arm. Once the Alternative Elastigirl gets a hold of the whip she redoubles the damage already done by the Mock Mr Incredible. This incarnation strikes out with forethought and cruelty: aiming the blows down onto the worst of the existing hurts. In the hands of Alternative Elastigirl it homes onto and cuts into every single one of the worst of the lashmark trenches already carven into Rainbow. Scarlet rivers and a curtain of perspiration coat the heroine's suffering frame. The pain stitching over Rainbow's back and flooding through her body rises to a veritable agony that threatens to swamp her.

The final player, in this drama of torture, is the semblance of Invisigirl: one visible Invisible is lashing down onto one invisible Invisible. The fake young Invisigirl can be dreamt to be full of junior angst, ire and jealously, that this Mirage has so upset her family, naturally she will try to outdo all of the earlier attacks on the captive. Now that Fake Invisigirl lets go of Rainbow, to take up the whip, it allows the captive body to revolve around and face to the front again. This is ideal for the aggressors: Fake Invisigirl can tear apart what of Rainbow hasn't yet felt the whip. Every vulnerable spot of a female body lies forward: neck, chest, breasts, stomach and groin. Not a one of these is missed or anything less than brutalised, by this evil version of Invisigirl. The climax is one scarring lash from left ear to jaw.

Mr Inedible and Gash have no role in the drama but cannot hold back from the assault and pile in where they can. Most often it is when Rainbow crumples unconscious and a judicious slash or a splash of acid will call her back to the hell she is in. That is how the afternoon wears on into evening: while they wear Rainbow out, wear Rainbow down. For the eloquacious Mr Inedible it is unthinkable and intolerable that he cannot tear one word out of his victim. For all of the very worst that they are doing to her: even the groans and screams issue forth rarely and reluctantly; not that they are absent — she is human and hurting - hurting terribly.

It all ought to end at the finish of the screening, when the camera is wound down and the show is in the cassette. All of the incarnations of Divisigirl are weary and aching from their ferocious efforts at the whip and glad for rest. This is not so for Mr Incredible or for Gash: without any need to hide from the camera now they can let loose their innate hate and cruelty. It is a surreal vision: to be assailed by both a Ring Master in full plumage and a living knife thrower. Rainbow just is not able to respect the finer points of the artistry; not while they spin her around and share out the whips between them.

For all that the many parts and varying powers of Divisigirl felt like the very worst lashing it was possible to imagine or to endure; it is as nothing to the vicious assault that a weakened Rainbow now has to live through. Mr Inedible cannot hit her hard enough or often enough to ease the anger in his heart. Gash gives full vent to his name and shows his sadistic bent to the utmost. All that saves Rainbow from utter destruction is that she is hanging loose and twisting; making for just enough give in the blows to give her some kind of a chance. For all that, the lashing ordeal only ends when her entire torso is caught in a scarlet net.

Whips alone, not even those made out of the very tongues of the demon. are enough to satisfy the apogee of villainy. In the end of it all, Mr Inedible and Gash do their best to do their worst, to this representative of the superheroes that they hate. There is such an onrush of brutality and cruelty that even a stoic Rainbow has to bite her lip and brace her will; to endure under the double torment of stab and singe. The coup de grâce comes after the whipping, as Gash and Mr Inedible fall back on their natural abilities, to introduce Rainbow to one, final world of torment. The agony of acid and abattoir is to much for her to bear: Rainbow crumples so deep into oblivion that there will be no reviving her for some time to come.

That is when the Indelibles take consideration for themselves. Evening is drawing on and their ordinary needs for food and sleep need satisfying. Divisigirl gets the first watch: she can wake or sleep as she likes but she has to keep station under the prisoner, it is the surest way to secure their captive. The airship is high enough up, so that not a one of them can imagine they will not hear any aircraft long before it reaches them. They are safe to wait out the night and continue their wicked ways come the dawn.

There will be no dawn for the heroine: for all of how her life shifts; not from this moment on: Rainbow has darkened to Violet to blackness and bleakness. For all that the body may live: whatever was Mirage … Rainbow … Violet … is now eclipse.


	8. Action & Anguish

« § » — CHAPTER EIGHT »» ACTION + ANGUISH — « § »

The Incredibles haven't been idle in the meantime: straight after losing the comms they struggle to restore them but with no success at all. They figure the airship is barring the signal, rather than anything really is faulty. Giving that up, as a bad job, they move onto other topics, with Mr Incredible doing the asking.

« Why'd you say she was Mirage? That's messed things up plenty! Is that really what you think? »

« Really? Who cares: she's me; I'm her; we're each other. »

« What's that meant to mean? »

« Bob; remember when we all started out? Those early days, when we were all young and everything was fun, excitement and adventure. You know how we'd be leaping over buildings, knocking down the villains, racing by cheering crowd and jumping bones on rooftops. When we got into a fight it wasn't more than a playground scrap. We were invulnerable, invincible, unbeatable; the magic heroes. »

Helen stretches out her arms; cups a hand round either side of Bob's face; gently turns him to look right at her.

« That was until our Dark Day! Yes. We all had one, where we got caught or hurt or hit by that particular ray. It's happening to her now; it happened to me then. Remember how I got blasted by that Chill Ray and went as stiff as a rubber band in a freezer? They had to ship me out to the Arizona Desert to thaw out.

Helen's arms pull in and she hugs herself tight; as if she can still feel that chill.

« I was awake inside of it and terrified that I'd never be able to move again and, even if I did, what if I couldn't stretch anymore? To lose what made me myself and to give up all that glory; it just tore me apart to think about it. »

« Hey; El, that's all over now. » Bob moves in; hugs Helen; pet-names her … but she isn't solaced.

« Rainbow or Mirage, it doesn't matter, you can see she's new to being a known hero. She hasn't even got her moves down yet. Whatever powers she's got, she doesn't know how to get the best out them; not and hold up her head as a hero at the same time. »

Helen softly brushes her hand across the Incredibles logo, on Bob's broad chest.

« For her it's still the early days; the ones where a whole new world should be opening up. All the wonder and delight that we had, she's hardly started on it, and she's lost that already and for always. Sometimes I still have nightmares about being frozen in that desert. »

Helen slips out of Bob's arms; puts her hands on his shoulders; holds him an ordinary arms' length from her.

« I know how she's feeling; she must be so afraid … what if what they're doing to her ends her powers and ends whatever life she hoped for. It'd be better if she died. Whatever happens after this she'll never be the same person she was before. »

Helen's arms fall to her sides; she clenches her fists; drops her head; speaks in a small voice.

« And … And … Bob … all I can think is … what if it was Violet up there! »

« Come on El, sure Violet's not the little girl she was. But don't we always keep an eye on her? Gotta bet she's still back in the hotel, sulking. Doesn't matter how tall she gets she's still our little kid and you can bet we'd never let her get in a fix like that. »

« I guess you're right Bob, we've always got an eye on our kids. It does make a difference to know it's Rainbow or Mirage up there and not our baby girl. We're still going to rescue her though; so enough of this melodrama.

« That's my Elastigirl! We're the heroes here! We've got a fair to guard and a girl to save too. Any ideas? »

« I've got one; but we'll have to wait till dark, or they'll see what's coming. »


	9. Soil & Sky

« » —CHAPTER NINE »» SOIL TO SKY— « »

As soon as the light begins to fade, the adult twosome of The Incredibles make their way through the fairground sideshows; to the test-your-strength machine. Once they are there, Mr Incredible rips the bell of off the top end and Elastigirl curls herself into a tight ball atop the slider. Mr Incredible yanks up the mallet in both of his hands and whams it hard on the strikeplate. Elastigirl is pinballed upwards: she rockets off of the post and is soon racing upwards. Turning into the shape of a dart, Elastigirl makes enough headway to fly up, stretch out and grasp the undercarriage of the airship. From there she has no difficulty in making her way into the airship and up to the pilotdeck. To her surprise, not one of the Indelibles seems to be around; all the easier for her to do what she has to do.

First order of business is to free Rainbow, whether or not she's fit to assist, she can't be left hostage. The very ease of getting this deep and finding Rainbow this simply only leaves Elastigirl the more horrorstruck at what she finds. Her very first thought is that she is far too late and the best she can do, for the bloody remains of what was a heroine, is to set a Viking funeral. Still dangling from the underside of the curving, upper stairs the girl looks like a refugee from Torquemada. Yet so, the trails of blood waver, as ragged breath still courses in the lungs. The manacles look simple enough for Elastigirl to remove, as long as she avoids the odd hole in the deck, so Helen forges ahead. That is exactly when Rainbow lifts her head; to give a vehemently shaken NO. Then Rainbow points downwards with her chin, at the hefty body slumbering on the deck under, before explaining.

« Gravity Powers. »

Elastigirl immediately understands the linkage. It explains why Rainbow is stretched out like meat on a hook, with her belly taut, ribs showing, joints parting and wrists bleeding. This is the moment for action, but Helen must know the answer to one question, before all else.

« Are you Mirage? »

Rainbow, if so she is, gives a crooked smile as she answers.

« A Mirage; yes »

« I think that's as good as no answer but don't worry; I'd rescue you whoever you were. That's what makes us the heroes. Now, if I get that Divisigirl to move away, can you free yourself? »

Rainbow gives a sure and confident nod; so Elastigirl elongates down through the hole in the decking, to stand over the wakeless Divisigirl. From there Elastigirl pokes and goads the ogress; until she is awake, irate and in pursuit of Elastigirl. It is easy for Elastigirl to keep ahead of the huge and ponderous Divisigirl; as long as there is one heavy and solid behemoth. Yet so, Divisigirl soon mixes this up.: breaking apart into four persons. They are come to a halt and standing as two human towers, each made up of one body standing on the shoulders of one other body. In one acrobatic move: the two girls-on-shoulders launch off their supporting partners, to fly over Elastigirl's head.

The Incredible now has two of the Divisigirls ahead of her and two behind, worse than that, one of the flying Divisigirls did manage to brush her hand across Elastigirl's bare face. This gives the Divisigirls the power to attract the body of Elastigirl and they take swift advantage of it. Each of the quartet runs off and away from each other; towards one of the four corners of the deck. Elastigirl is soon off her feet and drawn out in a widening »«. Elastigirl cannot free herself from this and it is not long before her supersuit has growing rents and tears. Helen recalls, all too well, how Edna Mode had told her that the uniform can stretch just as far as the Incredible can — safely. Elastigirl feels how painfully true this is, as the suit begins to give way and herself too.

Rainbow is the casus belli, yet she is entirely forgotten, in the heat of the battle under her. From the second Divisgirl left her post and took the fight to Elastigirl, Rainbow has been taking advantage of the chance. While the fight has been underway, Rainbow has been swinging back and forth in her chains. She keens and clenches her teeth, at the pain of her speeding momentum; gambling her wrists are not going to break under the extreme strain. Finally, at the apogee of a swing, she clouds the manacles in violet light and then they are gone. On the upbeat of an arc, with her wrists suddenly loose, Rainbow is thrown free and clear; to land on edge of the hole.

Rainbow buckles to the ground: her body weak from an eternity strung on the rack, with agony tearing at her from this abrupt release into motion. The long hours of being abused and broken have left Rainbow stiff, aching and paining; she works out as much of this as she can, just to gain back some erratic control of her body. The very second when Rainbow can trust her body to move, she is jumping down to the lower ground, to be along with Elastigirl. With all too much experience of Divisigirl gravitation. Rainbow understands immediately what is being done to Elastigirl.

Not wanting to risk getting in a position to be snared again, Rainbow blasts out at the closest two Divisigirls. It knocks the two figures out cold and with results that neither Elastigirl or Rainbow are expecting. The moment that they pass out, the pair of figures zoom along to slam into touch with their conscious self. It is as if one end of an elastic band has suddenly been released. Yet so, the two figures hit the next nearest, the impact knocks her out too. The multiple stunnage leaves only one part of Divisgirl awake and whole and struggling to keep her balance, as all of the other parts of her strike home, like cannonballs. It is far too much too adsorb: Divisgirl reels backwards, to slam into the windows, which utterly cannot hold her bulk and collapses; to let her plummet to the ground, at the cruel hand of normal gravity.

The two superheroines lean by the broken window: gazing down and taking stock. They reel against each other and support one another. Helen is closer to her daughter and further from her daughter than is imaginable. After this short respite they head back up the stairs; for the pilot house and what they can salvage from there. It is already too late; the alarm has been raised and the other Indelibles are lying in wait for them. Erasigirl uses the pilot marionette to attack Elastigirl with.

Mr Inedible has taken station high on the spiral staircase. Now he leaps down upon Rainbow, even as Gash attacks her from deck level. Under this twin threat, Rainbow takes the first action she can think of: she grabs up the whip, from where it has been left lying. Whip in hand, rainbow she snakes the lash of his own tongue around Mr Inedible's neck and yanks as hard as she can. Mr Inedible goes tumbling through the hole in the decking and out of the action … at least long enough for her to handle Gash.

Yet so, can Rainbow handle Gash: all the while she was tussling Mr Inedible, Rainbow was defenceless against Gash and the man took full advantage, to pepper her skin with his darts, that open up fresh wounds over all her body. This is the last time, however, Rainbow is set on it, she will not be a dartboard any longer. Rainbow jets out her own garnet shards, to feed Gash his own medicine. The first barrage strikes home in totality, as Gash is entirely unready to face his own weapon turning against him.

In truth, Rainbow is just as surprised, it is only the urgency of the moment that has driven her to this new ability.

Yet so, neither are slow to engage and to exchange needlefire: spicules of ruby and emerald clash and dash against each other, with neither Gash nor Rainbow giving an inch; not even as flechettes become flintstones, to raise sparks to threaten the very gas that uplifts the dirigible. Surely enough, as the fighters push their efforts the hardest, the spicules begin to glance off of one another and deflect upwards: to cut a swathe through all of the decks, and on into the Helium Envelope.

THABOOM

An explosive, conflagration: the zeppelin is awash in flames and blazes; metal and wood bomb through vanishing decking, while struts and fittings lance through the cabins. Gash is quick to seize the opening and fill the air with lucent shards that reflect the firelight back a thousand times over and purely dazzle Rainbow. He picks her weakest moment to focus his barbs down to firehose pressure and jet all of the whirling debris at the raw heroine. Rainbow is drowning in fire, crumpling under, bombs, shredding under lances; it is all she can do to evade the most and survive the worst.

She is a far, long way from full strength; the ordeal she has been through has come as near as anything to wreck her.: right now Buddy Pine Jnr would be a challenge and Gash is leagues above that. The more Rainbow persists, withstands and struggles to carry the fight, the more she is hurt and the more she fades: it is a vicious, killing, downward spiral with no hope, no chance and no relief. There is no relief for any hero: no way out or back or around. This is where the girl's weakness turns strength: she is no hero, deserves no medal; all of her is but for making her life her way. Heroine Rainbow is a creation: made to win out, to win all, to win at any cost. The created and the creator, neither of them ever were meant to be but a mayfly; life and living alike hold no value.

Rainbow finds the one way through: giving up on any resistance and plunging into the devastating storm, letting whatever might be maul her, enduring anything just to get within sight and shot of Gash. One clear break opens up and Rainbow makes the best of it; her fusillade carves a trench in the side of his head. Feeling the cut to his head, Gash decides to cut his loses and cuts a dash for the Escape Hatch and a parachute. Grabbing it to his chest, he flings himself out of the burning, crashing airship; yet not before he has slashed across all of the other parachutes, to leave all rest caught.

Even as Rainbow was engaging with Gash, Elastigirl was facing a mindominated pilot wielding an emergency axe. Her body bends in ever more desperate poses, as she fights to evade the bite of the axe;. She is but all too aware that she dare not harm the pilot; there is still an innocent within the puppet. It seems that, the longer Erasigirl keeps up her tether the better is her connection. There is nothing hesitant or awkward in this charge; the moves are all fluid, powerful and merciless. Elastigirl is baffled how to get past the mooncalf pilot and strike at the real villain.

THABOOM

Out of nowhere, the zeppelin becomes incandescent. Everywhere above their heads is blazing, the helium must have caught fire somehow. The rear sections of the gondola too are flaming, nothing but the glass and metal of the prow is resisting. Indeed, nothing at all is resisting, and Erasigirl least of all. With a scream of horror, despair and loss the mind wielder runs into the thick of the fire. She has kept the bond with the pilot too long; it has become too strong and Erasigirl is nothing of herself but only the reincarnation of the pilot dying in his craft.

The battleworn Rainbow and Elastigirl swap glances through the flames; it is not over yet: they must account for Mr inedible and whatever other horrors that are in store. The heroine duo soon find that Mr Inedible has made the final choice: to go down with his ship, in a Viking funeral. Yet so, it is none of a choice: when Rainbow had lashed a whip about his neck and yanked him aside, Mr Inedible had fallen through the hole between the decks. He had fallen though but the whip had not, the old whip had caught in the spiral stairs and Mr Inedible is dead: hung to death by his very own tongue.

All there is for Rainbow to do now is to secure her kit and the raw whip. Elastigirl winds herself around the zombie pilot, making her arm a leash to draw him along. All of them are in the front of the pilotdeck now, the escape hatch is there but entirely worthless, unless they can walk on air. They are dangerously high, over solid ground, in a kamikaze dirigible and with no parachutes. Elastigirl can see no road home and says as much.

« I can make myself into a parachute; but not for all of us. From what you did before, with Mr Incredible, I'm guessing you can't float this many people either. Am I right? »

Rainbow gives a shrug, and a shake of the head, to say Elastigirl is guessing right. Whatever about that, Rainbow is a long way from running out tricks. Her mind is full of thoughts, as she looks out of the dirigible, to judge the situation. Then Rainbow has her plan and turns to Elastigirl, to share the only hope for pilot and Incredible.

« Jump for lake. Trust. »

There is one of the local waters below them but not yet and never looking to be near enough or in a clear enough line to make for a safe leap, whatever about height. To make the jump is to land straight in your grave it seems. Trust, though, Rainbow cared enough to spend words to lay it out and, oddly, Helen does trust Rainbow. She has seen the the girl endure the worst but do the best. Rainbow has been cruelly, harshly, vengefully, been made the scapegoat in place of any Incredible. For all of this, at the soul of her and beyond any words, Helen feels a bond with the mysterious heroine and a certainty that the girl will never put herself first but always be there for the Incredibles. There can be just one response to this.

Helen jumps!


	10. Fire & Flight

« § » —CHAPTER TEN »» FIRE + FLIGHT — « § »

An instant in clear air and then everything darkens, fades and vanishes: as an inky red cloud embraces the duo in the air. The world is shut out; then there is an instant and eternal moment of nothingness. Next of all and all at once they are above the lake and then in the lake. The ordinary rule of nature is in command again. Helen keeps a firm hold of her patient, as she struggles to land and her mind tussles with all she has learnt.

Rainbow has just shown she can transport matter; even if that matter has to be clearly separated from everything else around it. What Rainbow has just achieved is simply an air to air transport; from outside the airship to over the lake. From before, that would be why she had got to glide Mr Incredible down and not just zap him to safety. Helen is guessing that Rainbow wasn't chancing planting Mr Incredible in the earth.

In the end, It has all worked out okay. Elastigirl and the pilot are already being tended by all of the helpers that must have been following the dirigible from the ground. Elastigirl is able to hand over the mindless pilot to the very experts that she had summoned earlier. The schoolteacherly figure of their NSA handler is there, along with Dash. Helen isn't sure this passes as Best Care, but she lets it pass; she is just too happy to be safe and greeting her family again

It is still early evening: not so many hours are gone by, since Elastigirl stormed the airship. Yet so, it is darkling and most of the light is the fiery illumination from the burning, falling airship. Rainbow cannot be seen either by twilight or balefire yet this does not worry anybody familiar with her shy ways. Yet so, Elastigirl knows the girl better than any and knows Rainbow will never shy from duty. Elastigirl sounds the alert

« Where's Rainbow? She must be here; I can't imagine her running off before the mission is over. »

This alerts everyone that the zeppelin is still overhead: ablaze and breaking apart. But and only none of the breakage is anything to fear: nothing is touching them and nothing is reaching them. The airship is now being kept intact, and in the air, by a coalescent, cobweb of force that: englobes it; contains and controls it. The blighted airship is reeling and tumbling in the sky; yet keeping aloft and also making headway to what must be some distant and safe part of the lakes.

It has covered about half the distance, under these conditions, when everything worsens with a boom. One of the barrels of flammable fuel must have finally broken free; then gone on to impact and rupture into the englobed overship, like a miniature Krakatoa. All there behold disaster; even as the holds of the airship crumple and collapse, from the effects of that first bombard. An escalating cascade and tirade of explosions spills out into the sealed-in sky-space. Somehow; that dot of a darer still aboard, is summoning up the strength to withstand every single shock and keeping the globe inviolate. The concern has become that the contents of the globe have become a perfervid cauldron; not one drop of which can be let back onto the ordinary loam.

Mr Incredible feels as if the weight of the world is lifting from his shoulders, as he sees the horizon walls close around the overship; but this is not the end … not quite, yet so. The bubble first has to be steered into wet dock; the lake that extinguishes and engulfs the doomed dirigible. That engulfs and extinguishes the fated heroine too. It seems all to probable:, as there are no signs of life whatever. The entire crowd of helpers does all it can to search as well as can be in the gloaming. It is a forlorn task but they will return in the morning, to try some more.

Helen has small hope of Rainbow escaping unhurt from this, or even of escaping at all. The girl was purely beat at the last Helen saw of her; to rodeo the blazing airbeast clear of all has surely cost Rainbow her very last tidal breath, the uttermost of whatever she had left. Helen sees her husband; sees exactly the same thoughts in his eyes and an even greater sense of loss haunting him. Being wife she ought to chase him on that, but is there any point, why sour a bitter day even further. Sad as she is, Helen yet feels a nugget of comfort, in knowing all of her family are safe. Let what is be; Rainbow has done her best: as hero, as sidekick, as companion and even as a friend. Nearly all of the Incredibles have gotten used to her being there — now they must get used to her not being there.

Yet so, following the last several hours, of tension and exhaustion, all of the Parrs can see each other again: Bob, Helen, Dash and the NSA minder are here. However, not any of them can see Violet and she is not just unseen but totally absent. The agent cum nursemaid will not take any blame; this is none of her role and she has been helpful beyond reason. One racing Dash is more than enough to handle, why must she or anyone, care that a sulky Invisible cannot be seen. Why indeed should anyone worry about one troubled teen; when not a one of them had really noticed her absence, for all the while that the emergency was underway

All of them believe they know exactly how things are. Violet had never wanted to be any kind of a visitor at this Fair. It was so unfair that, when she had come there, she had found herself so fully upstaged by Rainbow. Who could question that Violet had decided to remove herself from the stage entirely. On the first day of the fair they had all seen the dumb show of Rainbow and Violet clashing.

On the second day (today) Violet had split herself from them and from Rainbow; the girl had made it plain that her and Rainbow were none and the same. The new heroine had charmed everyone, by making puppets of the Incredibles, by forming delusionary mirages. From then on all of them have been mired in crisis and entirely forgetful of Violet. They had left her back in the hotel room and that is the first place they look now, What they find there is a world way from what they could want or wish for: it is just a note with a few wild words on it.

« Not seen. Never seen. Visible. Invisible. Always unseen. Don't see me. Won't see me. Till I see me. »

Wild words and a gone girl.

— - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - —

True words and a gone girl. Yet so: that cri de coeur is from months gone. Back when Violet lost the plot with her family, lost her temper with them all and lost them the house, to her overblown powers. Violet had known she had lost all her family an eon past: her very own family did not see her heroics and did not see fit to speak with her about what those heroics cost her. They cost a girl, rising to womanhood, any chance of ever having any offspring from her own loins; the very backwash of her powers had washed all fertility out of her. To Violet then and forever beyond she could only see that her birth family were lost to her and she to them, while she could never birth a family of her own. That dreadful note had been penned then, when she had thought to make an end to Violet Parr.

Yet so: she had taken mind that she had powers enough to end her own identity and take on another. From that moment Rainbow was born: a heroine who would be seen and who would win all she wished of life. Violet had kept the note to remind herself of the vow she had sworn back then, a vow that looks soon to be a fatal reality, with injuries enough to plunge her six feet under. Violet wrote her epitaph long and long ago.

« No. You won't have any more trouble ... not from Violet Parr. »


End file.
